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In 2010, Argentina recognized same sex marriage, and two years later passed a Gender identity law that gave rights to transgender identities. These laws are part of a process of democratization and expansion of citizenship that has however not yet extended to abortion. Despite social demand and activist action, abortion is illegal apart from certain exceptions that are in practice very restrictive. This paper analyses the current debate over the legalization of abortion focusing on three actors : the state, religious activists, and the feminist movement, situating their interventions within a long-term historical perspective. Every interpretation of abortion – as a limit to development, a crime against humanity, or as a woman’s human right – refers to national and international population policies, religious doctrines, memories of repression, feminist discourses and practices, and different ways of understanding and enforcing human rights.